Flight of Villainy
by EgixBacon
Summary: When Charlie and the gang take a vacation in Sasha's homeland, they discover that a sinister plot is afoot.
1. Foreword, Prologue, and Chapter 1

_**Foreword**_

_**Hello! You may know me as EgxHB from the TASVideos forums. To all my fellow TASers, I present my January surprise!**_

_**This story is a fanfic which I wrote during November-December 2014. In fact, this is not my first story - I have been writing ADGTH fics since November 2013, but this is the first which I have decided to release from the confines of my hard drive.**_

_**If you're not familiar with the franchise it's based on, don't worry; I believe that this story can be enjoyed by anyone, not just ADGTH fans.**_

_**For now, I've uploaded the Prologue and the first Chapter in one part. There are 7 Chapters in all, as well as the Prologue and Epilogue. I am planning to upload the remaining chapters according to the following schedule:**_

_**Jan 11: Ch. 2 + 3**_

_**Jan 18: Ch. 4 + 5**_

_**Jan 25: Ch. 6**_

_**Jan 31: Ch. 7 + Epilogue**_

_**Well, then! Without further ado, let us begin!**_

_Prologue_

A Hilltop Villa, Somewhere in California...

"Now, now," said the adult dog. "It's past your bedtime, you three. Time to switch off the TV."

Claire Bryne was a Belgian Malinois. She had never had any puppies of her own - but alas, here she was, caring for a set of Golden Retriever triplets she had only known for one week.

Claire's recent life had been rather turbulent - only one year previously, she had been seriously injured in a freak shooting accident.

Five days after that, her wounds had finally got the better of her... and she had, tragically, passed away.

However, another five months after she had joined the Angels in Heaven, an Archangel named Annabelle had recognised her as a dog of the highest benevolence. Claire, along with a group of fellow Angels, had been assigned the dangerous task of protecting a vulnerable orphan child from the forces of evil.

In recognition of her outstanding effort in this mission, Annabelle had granted her the title of Guardian Angel - one of an elite group of heavenly agents whose duty it was to guard scores of unfortunate children - both humans and puppies - in times of crisis.

As Claire pressed the power button on the television screen, the three little pups curled up on the rug in front of the fireplace. Their names were Harold, Arnold, and Donald - the cutest yellow dogs you ever did see, to paraphrase the (perhaps slightly popular) catchphrase. Claire stepped over to them, and lay down by them as she gently licked their furs in order to calm them down and help them to sleep...

... But, one of the triplets had something to say.

"Claire? Hey, Claire."

"What is it, Arnold?"

"I'm thirsty..."

The mildly annoyed Malinois sighed, as she got him to his feet. "Come on. Let's get you some water."

Claire slowly led him out of the room, and into the kitchen.

"Here we are. Hand on a sec."

Once she had made her way to the sink, she used her mouth to pick up a small metal water-bowl, and reared up on to her hind legs. She then used her front paws to support herself, as she filled the bowl with water from the tap, before passing it back down to Arnold.

"Thanks, Claire," he said, once he had taken the first sip. "You're the best!"

"Thank you."

While this was being done, however, the other puppies had been left on their own - and they had already started to catch some winks...

Even though Harold was sleeping, his senses were still very much active. Suddenly, his young nose detected a very unusual smell. He opened his eyes, rose to his feet, and nudged his brother on the shoulder.

"What is it, bro?" said Donald.

"Can you smell that?"

"Smell what?"

Then, both of them looked towards the fireplace. They could see that the flames were starting to grow outwards from the bed of coals, at an alarming rate...

"What's going on, bro?" the confused Donald continued.

"I have no idea, but it doesn't look safe. Get back!"

After that, something mysterious started to emerge from the fire. It cackled in an awful voice, as it summoned a large ring of green flames to surround the terrified pups.

"What have we here?" the voice spoke. "Aah - a fresh pair of Goldens - too easy!"

"Yaaaaaargh!" screamed Harold and Donald at the same time. "It's the Boogey-dog!"

The 'Boogey-dog' walked out on to the rug to confront them.

"Come here, my pretties," she said, in a witch's voice. The puppies tried to run away, but the heat from the ring of fire kept them from escaping - even though they were young, their reflexes forced them to back away from the flames, to prevent them from getting seriously burnt...

When Claire and Arnold finally came back from the kitchen, they could sense that all was not well. As Claire approached the rug, she noticed that the fireplace was no longer roaring, and that the floor was covered in black scorch marks.

"My brothers!" said Arnold. "Harold! Donald! Where are you guys...?"

Claire fell silent; she simply looked down at the floor, with a depressed look on her face.

"Claire? ...Claire? What's wrong?"

"Stay here, Arnold. I have to go."

Claire walked into the next room, and positioned herself in front of the large mirror which adorned the back wall. She placed her paw on the glass, and gave a sharp bark. The glass then became covered in sparkling stars, and the image of a pink dog appeared.

"Good evening, Miss Bryne," said the image. "Is there a problem?"

"Yes, Ms. Annabelle."

"What is it?"

Claire sniffed deeply, and tried to hold back the tears as she gave her response:

"Two of the puppies have disappeared... this is all my fault."

Annabelle closed her eyes, and shook her head in disbelief. Half of a minute passed before she continued the conversation.

"Article Four of the Guardian Convention. I wish for you to recite it."

"'A Guardian Angel must never leave their charge, or charges, unattended, except where they are able to leave them with someone in whom they have absolute trust.'"

"Good. Now, why did you break the Convention?"

"I only went to get one of the pups a drink, Ms. Annabelle. I was only gone for two minutes."

"Not acceptable, Miss Bryne. Two minutes is more than enough time for a demon to strike. Consider this to be an official warning - if anything like this happens again, you will lose your title of Guardian Angel."

Annabelle then held up a roll of parchment, and used a golden quill to write something on it. Once she had finished, she spoke again:

"I'm going to send another Guardian to take charge of the remaining pup. You are to meet him at the front door tomorrow morning. Understood?"

"Understood."

After that, Annabelle's image disappeared from the mirror. Claire went back to take Arnold upstairs, and that was where they stayed until the following morning.

_Chapter 1: Long Haul_

KNOCK, KNOCK.

"Coming," said Claire, as she crept over to the door with Arnold in tow. She opened the dog-flap, and crawled out into the cold, early-morning air.

"Good morning, Ma'am," said the male German Shepherd cross who was now standing on the porch of the luxurious villa. "Do you have the puppy with you?"

"He's right here," she replied, as Arnold came through the flap after her.

"Aww," said the Shepherd, who, almost immediately, became infatuated with the little Golden Retriever. "Isn't he a cutie?"

He then picked Arnold up by the scruff of the neck.

"Goodbye," said Claire, as her colleague turned to carry the puppy down the steps. "Take good care of him."

"Don't worry, Ma'am, I will. Besides, I've got a long flight ahead of me."

As he walked down the hill, through the winter mist, the Malinois slowly waved good-bye to the one remaining golden puppy.

Perhaps it would be appropriate to give you some back-story here: The mother of Arnold and his brothers had fallen ill, and, due to no longer being able to care for her offspring, she had had to give them up for adoption. The one who had adopted them, was the wealthy owner of the villa. Unfortunately, the owner had no other dog of his own to be a mother or father figure to them, so Claire had been sent in to take this role.

"where are we going, Charlie?"

Charlie and Arnold were now sitting on the back seat of a taxi-cab. As Charlie was looking out of the side window, the puppy had been repeating this same question over and over.

"It's a surprise, kid," he finally replied. "I don't want to spoil it. Besides, we're almost there - it's only a few more miles to go."

"Oh, goody. I can't wait."

Five minutes later, the taxi pulled up into the drop-off area of a large airport.

"Here you are," said the driver, as he opened the door for Charlie.

"Thank you," the Shepherd replied, as he stepped out of the car, and gave the driver his fare. The driver, being a human, had been slightly surprised that his passenger was, in fact, a dog, but he accepted the money anyway.

Charlie then walked away, with Arnold tucked under his arm, and a rucksack on his back. He walked over to the shelter at the front of the airport building, where he met another two dogs. These were Itchy, the male brown Dachshund, and Sasha, the female Irish Setter.

"Hey, guys," said Charlie. "Well, a guy and a gal, at least. How's it going?"

"It's been going great," Itchy replied. "You ready for the flight?"

"I've got my rucksack, so yeah, I guess. Also, there's someone I'd like to introduce you to."

Charlie then held up the puppy for the other dogs to see, and they smiled at him in adoration.

"Oh, my gosh," said Sasha. "Who's this, then?"

"This is Arnold," said Charlie. "He's a Golden Retriever puppy. Wanna give him a hug?"

"Yes, please!" said Sasha and Itchy at the same time.

Charlie passed Arnold over, and Sasha cradled him in her arms, before letting Itchy have a turn.

"He's adorable..." she said quietly. "Please tell me we're taking him with us?"

Charlie nodded, and Sasha giggled, smiling happily.

Three hours later, the three adult dogs, and the one puppy, were seated on a large airliner that was now flying eastward over the neighbouring state of Nevada. Sasha was in the leftmost seat in the row, by the window, with Arnold sitting on her lap. Charlie was next to her in the left middle seat, and Itchy was immediately to his right.

"So," said Sasha to Charlie, "are you looking forward to the vacation?"

"Yeah," he replied. "It seems like we haven't been on one in ages - what with me being a G.A. and all that jazz."

"Where are we going?" Arnold asked. Today, this sentence appeared to be his favourite question.

"We're flying to somewhere very special, little guy," Sasha replied. "A place where I used to live - a very long time ago."

"Are we there yet?"

"No, not yet. Not for another... um... let's just say, it's going to take a very long time to get there."

Late that night, after the adults had been spending several hours trying to keep Arnold entertained, the plane finally touched down at an airport in New York - however, this was not their destination; this was just a stop-over. By this time, Arnold was very much asleep, and Sasha was having to carry him around everywhere.

The four dogs spent the night in the airport lounge, until, in the early morning, it was time for them to catch the plane again for the second leg of their flight.

After another twelve hours of flying, the airliner touched down again. The group swiftly entered the airport, picked up their luggage from the conveyor belts, and started to make their way to the taxi area.

Arnold, who had been resting for the last few hours of the flight, was now opening up his eyes again.

"Yawn... Where are we?"

"Have a little guess," said Sasha.

"Are we in... France?"

"Nope."

"... Germany?"

"No, no, Arnold. Look up - at the sign."

She then pointed towards a sign which was hanging from the ceiling. It read:

_"WELCOME TO IRELAND._

_Céad Míle Fáilte - One Hundred Thousand Welcomes."_

"My gosh," Arnold yawned. "This looks a lot different from America..."

Once they had all taken the taxi to the hotel, the dogs checked in to their rooms, before going to the downstairs lounge.

"It's going to be Arnold's bedtime soon," said Sasha. "How long are we going to be here, Charlie?"

"Not very long," he replied. "We'll just have something to drink, and then we'll take him up."

To drink, Charlie and Itchy had a small glass of beer each, whereas Sasha had opted for a glass of red wine.

Once they had finished, Charlie and Sasha took Arnold up to their room, while Itchy stayed back in the lounge.

To keep Arnold warm, Charlie took a spare pillow from the bed, and a small towel from the bathroom, and placed them on the floor to make a little bed. He tucked the puppy in, making sure he was comfortable, before he and Sasha got into their bed, and switched off the light.


	2. Chapter 2: The Neirath Family House

_Chapter 2: The Neirath Family House_

At about seven o'clock the next morning, Charlie and Sasha were beginning to wake up. As Charlie rotated towards the side of the bed, and placed his feet on the floor, Sasha gave him a light pat on the shoulder.

"Come on," she said, as she looked at the time on the alarm-clock. "It's about time we got ready to go."

"But it's seven o'clock," Charlie replied. "Since when did we get up this early on Sundays?"

"Charlie!" the Irish Setter said sternly. "We're going to see my parents, remember? It's going to take an hour on the bus, and they're expecting us this morning."

"Surely they can wait a little bit longer?"

"Only if you want to wait 'a little bit longer' for your breakfast," she replied. "Not to mention missing the bus!"

"I thought we were having breakfast here?"

"Nope."

The two canines climbed out of the bed, and started to get washed and dressed, which took them about ten minutes.

Charlie was now wearing a grey button-shirt with brown trousers, and Sasha had put on a fashionable green-and-white dress.

"You stay here and make sure Arnold's okay," said Charlie. "I'm going to make sure Itchy's up."

He then left the room, walked over to Itchy's door, and knocked. It took ten seconds for his friend to get to the door, and open it.

"Hey, man," said Itchy. "Are we getting ready to go?"

"Yes," Charlie replied.

He then noticed that Itchy was still wearing his usual clothes - the green T-shirt, and red cap.

"Are you going to change?"

"Change? Uhh... what's wrong with what I'm wearing now?"

"It's too casual, Itch. Come on, you could at least put some shorts on."

"Okayyy..." Itchy groaned, as he went to change his clothes, while Charlie stood waiting outside his room.

A few minutes later, Itchy came out again. This time, he was wearing a blue doggy-jacket, and, as Charlie had advised, a pair of dark grey shorts.

Next, Sasha went out into the corridor, while carrying Arnold under her arm.

"C'mon, guys," she said. "Let's go."

The four dogs then went downstairs to the lobby, walked outside, and sat down to wait at the bus-stop.

Ten minutes later, the bus arrived, and the group of dogs got on. During the hour-long journey, they looked out the window, and observed the beautiful landscapes of the towns and countryside of Ireland.

In the end, they arrived in a small town in County Sligo. The dogs jumped off the bus, and walked over to a small house with a white front wall, and a green door. Sasha knocked on the door, and she and the other dogs waited side by side.

When the door opened, another two Irish Setters were standing behind it.

"Hey, sister!" they said at the same time. "Welcome back!"

"My gosh..." said Sasha with a bright blush on her cheeks. "I haven't seen you two in a very long time."

"Neither have we, sis," said one of the Setters, and he gave Sasha a big hug. Once he had done that, he then turned towards Charlie, and said, "Who do we have here, then?"

"Charlie Barkin," the Shepherd cross replied, offering his paw for a handshake. "And you?"

"Riley Neirath Junior," the male Setter replied, as he accepted the handshake. "In case you hadn't figured it out, I'm Sasha's brother."

Riley Jr. had a similar appearance to Sasha, except that his body was much more masculine in build, with a narrower pelvis and a stockier torso. Also, his face was sharper than his sister's; his eyes were brown rather than green, and he had less hair on his ears and head. He was wearing a pair of light grey shorts, but not much else.

Then, the third Setter stepped forward. She was Sasha's twin sister, and the only obvious difference between the two females was the colour of their fur; unlike Sasha, she had yellow fur. She was wearing a white T-shirt, with blue jeans.

"Hey, Charlie," she said. "Who's your friend?"

"Me?" said Itchy shyly. "Oh, yeah... I'm... Itchy Itchiford... I'm Charlie's friend. Yeah."

"Oh, okay. My name is Sarah La Fleur."

She then gave Charlie a hug, before turning her attention to Arnold.

"So, who's this little guy, then?"

"This is little Arnold," Sasha replied. "Charlie and I are babysitting him."

"Awww. He's so... squee!"

Sasha then passed the puppy over to Sarah, and she and Riley gave him some cuddles.

After that, they all went into the house. They were met with a fully-laid table, with two other dogs sitting down at it.

"Welcome," said the female of the two. From hearing her say just that one word, anyone could have told that she was a French dog.

"Oh, Mother," said Sasha, stepping quickly towards her. "What happened to you?"

Sasha's mother, Susan, was wearing a large blue dress. Unfortunately, her body was very obese, and this was what had caused Sasha to despair.

"A lot has happened since you flew the nest," said the other dog who was sitting at the table. "My dear Susan and I have both retired, Riley Jr. has a job and a family of his own, and Sarah has a part-time job at the off-licence."

"But what about Mama Susan?" said Sasha. "What happened to her bo-... I mean, her..."

"You see, Sasha, for the last few years, your mother has been spending her days in a retirement home. She always used to say they had great food there, but... that was the problem, you see."

Once he had finished his speech, Susan's husband got up from his chair, and walked over to fetch some plates from the kitchen.

"Hey, Junior," he called. "Can you help me carry the breakfasts?"

"Yes, Father."

Before long, everyone was sitting at the table, and each dog now had a plate stacked with sausages and eggs in front of them.

Once they had all finished, the dogs resumed their conversations.

"So, you must be Sasha's father," said Charlie to the older of the two male family members.

"You're right, lad," he replied. "The name's Riley Neirath Senior. I see you've already met my son."

"Yes," Charlie replied.

"The only survivor of our first litter, our Junior. That was one year before Sasha and Sarah came along."

Riley Senior was, to describe him in simple terms, like an older version of his son. Charlie guessed that, when he was Riley Jr.'s age, he would have looked pretty much the same as his son did now.

Riley Snr. was dressed in a beige buttoned shirt, coupled with a pair of dark green dungarees.

"What's your name, laddy?" he continued.

"Charlie Barkin. I'm Sasha's boyfriend."

"Heh, heh. You must be pretty lucky, then."

"I know, right?"

Later on, the family and their visitors were all sitting in the lounge. Susan and Riley Snr. were both sat in rocking chairs, the other adults were on the sofas, and little Arnold was resting on Sasha's lap. The rest of the morning was spent talking about everything that had happened in the years since Sasha had left Ireland. By the end of it, Charlie had recounted his entire life story, which had ended up dragging on for several hours...

"Oh, gosh, look at the time!" said Sasha. "It's two o'clock."

"My goodness," said Riley Snr. "You've been through a lot, haven't you, Mr. Barkin?"

However, before Charlie could respond, a voice suddenly came, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Charles! Can you hear me?"

"Yes, Ms. Annabelle. What seems to be the problem?"

Everyone turned towards the window, which Annabelle was now projecting her image on to.

"Listen, everyone. A team of Angel scouts has found some very strange sounds coming from a castle in County Galway. Charles, Itchy, and Sasha, your mission is to go over to the castle and investigate."

The projection then changed to show a map of Ireland, with the location of the castle indicated by a glowing red dot. After a few seconds, it changed back to showing Annabelle's face.

"I expect that the castle will be filled with hidden dangers, so I advise you three to keep your wits about you whilst you are inside. Also..."

She then raised up a pair of glowing swords, and held them out in front of her.

"I believe these are yours, Mr. Itchiford."

Itchy reached into the window, and the swords passed from Annabelle's paws into his.

"Gee, thanks," he said, as a scabbard magically formed over the blade of each sword.

"Come on," said Charlie. "Let's get moving."

"We can take my car," said Riley Jr. "It's going to be about one-and-a-half hours' drive."

"But what about Arnold?" Sasha asked.

"I'll ask your family to take care of him," Charlie replied. "Riley, Susan, and Sarah. Can I trust any of you to keep Arnold safe?"

"You can trust me," said Sarah.

Charlie passed the little puppy over to her, and waved good-bye. Along with Sasha, Itchy, and Riley Jr., he walked out of the house, and they all got into Riley's car.

"Let's drive!" said Sasha's brother, as he started the car, and drove the vehicle roaring out of the driveway.


	3. Chapter 3: Raiding the Castle

_Chapter 3: Raiding the Castle_

Even after they had been driving for one-and-a-half hours, there was still quite a way to go before the group of dogs got to the front gate of the huge castle.

After another half-hour of driving along a winding country road, Riley Jr. finally pulled up in front of the gate.

"This is as far as we can go," he said, as he opened the nearside door, and climbed out of the car. "We're going to have to climb over the gate."

The others climbed out after him, and they all stood in front of the gate, which was heavily rusted. At the top, there was what was supposed to be the name of the castle, but, unfortunately, most of the letters had been broken off by corrosion.

The dogs climbed up the fence at the side of the gate, and, once they were over the top, jumped down on to the wet soil on the other side.

After another five minutes of slow walking, the group finally reached the front drawbridge of the castle.

"Darn," said Charlie, "it's closed. We're going to have to find another way in."

He and Itchy then stepped around to the side wall of the colossal building, where they found a small archway. They then beckoned for Sasha and Riley to come over, and they walked under the arch. At first, it appeared to lead to a dead end, but the dogs noticed a crawl space in the bottom of the wall. The space was designed for humans, so the larger male dogs had to lower themselves down a bit to fit through. Sasha could fit in just by lowering her head and bending her hind legs slightly, and Itchy, being the smallest dog, was able to simply walk through without a change in posture, so he went in front.

When the group came out at the other side, they found themselves in a large courtyard. At this time of year, sunset was quite early in the evening. The time now was just past four o'clock, so it was starting to get quite dark.

The dogs followed the wall until they found a rotting wooden door. Its iron reinforcement was badly rusted, which greatly compromised the sureness of the door.

"This'll be easy," said Itchy, as he unsheathed his swords. He then slashed at the rotten wood, and it splintered with a loud crack. After a few more slashes, the door had been knocked down, and the group passed through the doorway and into the castle.

For several minutes after that, the dogs had been walking cautiously through the many corridors of the castle. Whenever they found a door, they would open it ever so slightly, and peep through it. Every time, however, all they could see was just an empty room.

"That's strange," said Charlie. "There are so many rooms, but there's nothing in them."

That was, until they got to a large pair of double doors.

"A-ha," he continued. "Perhaps this is what we're looking for."

He then tried to open the doors, but they were secured with a large padlock.

"Stand back, Charl," said Itchy, before he struck the lock with one of his swords. The lock made a thump as it crashed to the floor.

Once the doors were opened, the dogs walked in, and found that they were now in a large front room. The walls were adorned with shields and animal trophies, and suits of armour stood in a line at the back of the room. The fireplace was burning fiercely, despite the appearance that there was no-one else there.

Suddenly, there was a loud sound which startled the group of dogs. They looked around in a panic, and saw that there was now a portcullis in front of the double doors.

"Quick!" said Sasha. "There's got to be a way out of here."

Each of the dogs then ran in a different direction. There was one door in each corner of the room, but before any of the dogs could get to a door, they were all blocked off by solid metal shutters.

"We're trapped!" said Charlie.

He then looked at one of the shutters for a second, and tapped it with his paw.

"Wait a minute... this seems to be made of steel. I don't think they had doors like these in the Middle Ages..."

"That's 'cause someone put them in there," Itchy replied. "You know... to trap us!"

Suddenly, the group heard a strange hissing sound.

"What's that?" Riley asked.

"I don't know..." said Sasha, as she sniffed the air. "I can't smell anything."

"Then it's probably an odourless gas," said Itchy. "I think we should get in the centre."

However, the gas was not just coming from one place. The gas was being sprayed from several hidden nozzles, many of them being concealed in the furniture.

The dogs were now all crouching in the centre of the room, and holding their breaths. However, they couldn't hold on forever...

Itchy was the first to let go, because he had the smallest lungs. As soon as the gas entered his respiratory system, he began to laugh uncontrollably.

Before long, the other dogs had run out of breath as well, and had started to breathe in the gas. Now, everyone was laughing.

But, after another thirty seconds, they were all unconscious. The gas had been nitrous oxide - a notorious anaesthetic.

A whole hour later, the group finally regained consciousness. This time, however, they were no longer in the front room of the castle...

_**That's the end of this week's pair of chapters. Chapters 4 and 5 should be up next Sunday.**_


	4. Chapter 4: Captives

_Chapter 4: Captives_

"Where are we?"

When the team of dogs woke up in this unfamiliar place, that was the question on all of their minds. The only sound any of them could hear was the 'clang, clang, clang' of tools striking against metal.

Everyone looked around the room. The walls were a dull grey, and the only thing in there that gave them any idea of where they could be, was a large LED screen on the wall in front of them. The dogs tried to move, but they couldn't - they were sat down in leather seats, with their paws and feet held down by hoops of black steel.

Meanwhile, outside their mysterious prison, a pair of shady characters were making the final preparations on a gigantic behemoth of fabric and aluminium - an airship.

"Boooooys...?" came a voice from inside. "Are we ready for take-off yet?"

"Yes, Big Bawss," came the reply.

After that, the rear entry hatch of the huge aircraft opened with a loud buzzing sound. Once it was fully lowered, the shady ones walked in silently, and the hatch buzzed back up behind them.

A minute later, the engines of the grand dirigible roared into life. The vehicle had been contained inside a large hangar which was located a few yards from the castle. The roof of the hangar slowly opened wide, and heavy ballast was jettisoned from the hull of the airship, allowing it to rise into the sky.

"Woah, what the..." said Sasha, as the room rumbled with the roar of the engines. "We're moving!"

Before long, the airship had begun to progress forward, and the powerful noise continued to echo around the room.

"Come on," said Charlie, "there has to be some way out of these chairs."

However, before anyone could answer him, a door opened in the side of the room, flooding it with natural light. The dogs were almost blinded by the sudden change in light levels, as another dog walked in through the doorway.

"Heh, heh, heh!" he chortled. "Looks like we've hit the jackpot, eh, Killer?"

"Yes, bawss..."

The villain then stepped towards Sasha.

"Sasha La Fleur..." he sighed. "We finally meet again."

He then placed his paw under her chin, and stroked gently. Sasha said nothing; she just glared at him with her bright green eyes.

"Keep off," said Charlie, who was sat in the seat directly behind her. "Only I should be able to do that."

"Do what? This?" the overweight bulldog replied, before gripping Sasha's chin more tightly, causing her to snarl at him.

"Seriously, Carface," Charlie continued. "Don't tick me off, man."

But Carface didn't listen. He gripped Sasha's dress tightly with both paws, and planted a kiss on her lips.

"You... douchebag!" she said, once he had broken away.

"Heh, heh! I've wanted to that for a long time."

"If you do that one more time," said Charlie, "then you are dead meat, Carruthers."

"Nope," said Killer, who had now entered as well. He pulled out a deadly flamethrower from behind his back, and said, "If you try to do things that way, you're going to be _burnt_ meat!"

He then turned his attention towards Itchy, who was to Charlie's right.

"Hey, looky looky," he said, as he took Itchy's swords from the rail on the back wall. "These blades are real quality. Wakizashi, I believe?"

"Yes," the Dachshund replied. "Those swords are mine, Kill. Give 'em here!"

"Heh. Fat chance, shorty."

"I said, GIVE... THEM... HERE!"

Then, using his angelic power, Itchy snatched the swords clean out of Killer's paws, and, while they were still levitating in the air, used them to slice through the metal hoops around his wrists and ankles, before catching the swords' handles in his own paws.

Killer tried to torch him with the flamethrower, but Itchy rolled to the side, and strafed around to behind him.

"Hey, Itch!" Charlie called. "Help me out, man!"

Itchy rushed over to his friend, and tried to free him, but once he had cut through three out of four hoops, he suddenly felt something gripping his neck from behind.

"Not so fast, weenie-boy," said a very sinister voice. Yet another dog had entered the fray, and now she had Itchy under restraint. She punched him in the back, causing him to drop the swords.

"Get back in your chair, you twerp," she continued, as she slammed him into the seat. Itchy tried to keep his paws away from the dreaded hoops, but this dog was too strong - while she gripped his neck tightly with one paw to keep him immobile, she used her other paw and her feet to force his limbs back into the hoop slots, before closing them on him.

Charlie was now up on his hind legs. He tried to reach for the swords, but he couldn't; one of his feet was still trapped. Once Carface was next to him, he put Charlie's limbs back in the hoops.

"Belladonna..." said Charlie contemptuously. "So it was you who was behind this."

"Of course," the demon-dog snarled back. "I knew you and your friends would fall for my trap."

She then turned towards the other villains.

"At ease, boys. Now, get back to flying the airship!"

"Yes, Your Darkness."

"Yes-sirree, Big Bawss."

Once Carface and Killer had left the room, and closed the door behind them, Belladonna switched on the ceiling light, and cleared her throat.


	5. Chapter 5: An Irish Tragedy

Chapter 5: An Irish Tragedy

Itchy and Charlie were now struggling to re-open the iron hoops. Even though Itchy had previously sliced through the metal, the hoops were now sealed again - while Belladonna and Carface had put them back in their chairs, Belladonna had used her 'heated paw' power to weld the hoops closed, and Carface had taken Itchy's swords away.

"Now, my pretties," said the demon-dog, as she powered on the wide LED screen. "I guess now is a good time to show you where you all are."

As the screen flickered to life, Belladonna took out a small remote from its holster on the wall, and pressed one of the buttons on it. The screen then changed to show a bright blue menu display, similar to what you might see when setting up a video recorder. At the bottom of the display, there was a prompt which flashed on and off:

"PLEASE INSERT TAPE."

Belladonna then opened a small drawer, took out a VHS cassette, and slotted it through a small flap which was underneath the screen. After that, she pressed 'Play' on the remote.

After a few seconds of blankness, the image on the screen faded in. It showed what appeared to be an artist's impression of the airship, before transitioning to a computer-generated animation of the massive vehicle cruising through the sky.

Then, Belladonna began to speak - however, this was not her present self speaking; this was a recording of her voice which had been dubbed over the film on the tape.

"Behold, the most magnificent dirigible the world has ever seen. Its name is the Belladonna Bumblebee - or, as I prefer to call it, the Bellabee!"

The 'Bellabee' was a magnificent beast indeed - according to the voice-over's subsequent description, its grey, baggy hull was eight hundred feet in length, and a hundred and fifty feet in diameter. The side of it was emblazoned with a red, stylised letter B, with a purple star surrounding it. The aircraft was equipped with six diesel engines, and had three tail-fins arranged in a triangular formation.

The film then showed that the room the dogs were in was near the back of the underside cabin, which was about one-twentieth the length of the whole ship.

The animation then showed something just behind the cabin. It had the appearance of a large space laser, and it was connected to the cabin by an assortment of thick cables.

"This," said Belladonna's recorded voice, "is the Bellabee's main weapon - the Death Ray. It fires a highly concentrated beam - a mixture of gamma radiation and plasma, at a temperature approaching twelve thousand kelvin. That's more than three times the melting point of tungsten! If anyone gets zapped by this baby, to say they're 'toast' would be a major understatement."

After that, the tape abruptly stopped...

"I'm sorry, twerps," said Belladonna - this time in person, of course. "The tape goes on a bit longer than that, but I can't show you the rest - too much secret stuff, you see."

"You're saying that," said Sasha, "but you still showed us that huge laser thingy."

"The Death Ray, you mean? My dear girl, can't you tell why I showed it? Because... let's just say... nah, screw it."

She then walked over to Riley Jr., and placed her paw on his shoulder.

"What have we here," she said. "A male Fleur? Well, that's a surprise."

"Excuse me?" Riley replied. "My name isn't 'Fleur'. It's Neirath."

"All right then, 'Neigh-rah'. But the point is, you ARE Sasha's brother, am I right?"

"Yes."

Belladonna then placed her paw under his chin, and caressed it, similarly to how Carface had done with Sasha before.

"Keep off," said Riley. "I'm a married dog."

"Ahh," the villainous female replied. "Well, well. I never would have guessed - then again, you are kind of a hunk..."

Riley was left speechless by this remark. He closed his eyes, and shook his head, as Belladonna continued to stroke his face.

Next, she turned her attention to Sasha.

"Now, Fleur," she said. "I bet you're dying to see what this Death Ray can do."

"No, I most certainly am not," Sasha replied.

"Too bad, red-head. Carface and Killer are already preparing to warm it up. We're going to have to fire it at something..."

"Like what?"

"Something like... heh, heh... your parents' house, perhaps?"

"How?" Sasha asked. "It's not as if you know where my parents live... right?"

"You're right... I don't. But not for long!"

The demon then lunged toward Sasha, and clasped her paw over the Setter's head. Sasha began to yell, as Belladonna's powers began to worm their way into her mind.

The three male dogs could only stare in horror as sparks flew from Belladonna's paw. The evil Whippet searched through Sasha's brain, filing through her brain cells for the one piece of information that she sought - the location of the house of Susan and Riley Snr.

After nearly a whole minute of doing this, Belladonna finally removed her paw from Sasha's forehead, and cackled loudly. Before long, she was standing between Sasha and Riley Jr., facing towards the big screen, and her acidic laugh echoed around the room.

Charlie could take it no more. Starting with when Belladonna had been talking to Riley, his anger towards her had been building steadily, and now it had reached a fever pitch. His muscles were now surging with latent strength, and the iron hoops around his wrists were starting to crack...

When Belladonna was about to stop laughing, the iron finally gave way. All of Charlie's limbs broke out at the same time, and he began to sprint towards his enemy...

However, Belladonna was quick to react. In an instant, she turned around, stretched out her arms, and grabbed Charlie by the throat. As the Shepherd cross gasped for breath, she delivered a quick punch to his jaw. The blow knocked him to the floor, but caused no serious damage. After that, Belladonna picked up the TV remote, pointed it at the exit door, and pressed one of the buttons. While the door was opening, she dashed away, but Charlie quickly got to his feet.

Once Belladonna was through the doorway, she pressed another button, and, unfortunately, the door zipped shut before Charlie could reach it.

"Daaargh!" he groaned, as his fist knocked against the cold metal. He then turned around to look back at his friends, before kneeling down on the floor.

Once she had escaped from the dark room, Belladonna was on the floor of the well-lit main cabin. She then stepped over to the front, where there was a large control console, with a panoramic window behind it. She pressed some keys on the console, and a small monitor popped up. It displayed a command line prompt, and Belladonna typed in some scripts.

After that, a small dialogue box popped up, with two small input boxes, and the heading, 'Input Address/Coordinates'.

The demon-dog typed in the address she had obtained, and the system converted it into latitude and longitude.

"TARGET COORDINATES HAVE BEEN ENTERED SUCCESSFULLY," said the computerised voice.

The Death Ray then started to aim downwards. Its internal motors whirred loudly as it focused on the spot where Susan's house stood.

Meanwhile, inside the house, Sarah was in her bedroom, with Arnold resting on the bed. Her ears detected a strange buzzing sound, and she looked out the window. When she saw the huge airship in the sky, she almost gasped.

Once the Bellabee had flown a bit closer, Sarah was able to look at it more closely. That was when she noticed that the diabolical weapon on its underside was pointed in her general direction.

"Arnold!" she barked. "Arnold, wake up! We have to get out of here."

The little puppy slowly rose to his feet, and Sarah picked him up in her paws. She opened the door into the lounge, and ran over to her parents.

"Mama Susan! Dad! We've gotta move!"

"What is it, dear daughter?" Riley Snr. asked.

"There's a huge airship outside. It's got a GIANT space-laser on it! Hurry!"

"Keep calm, Sarah," said Riley Snr. "Let's go, Susan."

Once he had helped his obese wife to her feet, he helped her over to the front door, where Sarah was waiting impatiently. Once they were all outside, Sarah helped her parents to walk across the road. Susan could not walk very quickly, and it took nearly twenty seconds to walk to the other side.

Back inside the dark room, Charlie had been trying to free the other dogs from their chairs. However, the hoops were fastened with secure locks, and Charlie could find no way to open them. He was just about to speak, when, all of a sudden, the LED screen switched itself back on. It was now showing a live view from the ship's onboard camera, which was focused on Susan's house.

"This is it," said Sasha. "Looks like this is the end for our family, eh, Riley?"

"We've just got to hope they can get out in time," her brother replied. Had the screen been turned on a minute earlier, they would have seen their parents and sister leaving the house, but unfortunately, they were left none the wiser about the situation.

"But what about Arnold?" Charlie asked. "If he dies, our mission is over."

"That might happen," said Itchy, "but even then, we'd still have to find some way to stop Belladonna."

"Good point, Itch..."

Charlie then looked up at the ceiling, and noticed that there was a vent in the corner. But, before he could consider this possible escape route, a loud sound came from the speaker system.

The sound rose in both pitch and loudness, as the Death Ray prepared to fire. After about ten seconds, a wicked beam of green plasma finally spewed forth from the Ray, and descended towards the house...

Sasha and Riley both closed their eyes tightly, as the deadly beam struck the ground.

When they opened their eyes again, the house of Susan and Riley Snr., along with its two neighbouring homes, had been reduced to nothing but rubble. Belladonna's cackling voice then echoed over the stream:

"Mwa ha ha... ha ha ha... MWA HA HA HA HA HAAA!"

Sasha and Riley Jr. were now weeping tearfully. As far as they believed, Susan, Riley Snr., Sarah, and Arnold, were all dead.

"That's it," said Charlie. "I've got to do something about this."

"No, Charlie..." said Sasha. "You can't go out there on your own. You won't stand a chance!"

"It's the only way," he replied, as he cracked open the vent. "Once I'm out, I'll figure out how to open the doors... and unlock the iron hoops, of course."

"Good luck, Charlie..."

With that, the heroic male dog climbed up the wall, entered the vent, and started to crawl through it.


	6. Chapter 6: A Portal to the City

_Chapter 6: A Portal To The City_

After what must have been nearly fifteen minutes of slow crawling through the ventilation system, Charlie finally came to another air vent. He looked down through it, and saw a cleanly polished white floor. _This must be the main deck_, he thought.

Once he had prised open the vent, he manoeuvred himself over the gap, and lowered himself down. Once his hind legs were hanging freely, he let go, and landed on the floor, like a cat after righting itself during a fall.

Charlie then sniffed the air, and took a good look around him - he would need to get a good feel for his surroundings if he was going to survive.

Fortunately, there was no-one else in this section of the gondola. In the opposite corner from the dark room, there was a room with white outer walls, and red frames around the edges.

Charlie crept up to the front door of the room, and placed his ear against it. He could hear voices from inside, but they were too quiet for him to discern what they were saying - that was, until one of the speakers raised her voice.

"Then get to it, you numb-skull! We need to open the gateway in about five miles. Warm up the Cannon already!"

"But, Big Bawss... You can't call me a numb-skull - I graduated from M.I.D., you know."

"I can call you whatever I want, boy. Now, chop-chop. We've no more time to lose."

Charlie had to think quickly about his plan of action. He looked around for anything which could give him a chance to break in.

That was when he spotted a dull grey box on a nearby shelf. He inspected it more closely, and saw that it was a storage case of some sort. When he looked at its top side, he found that it was stencilled was the phrase 'Stielhandgranate.'

"Hand grenades?" Charlie muttered under his breath, as he open the case. Surely enough, the case contained six stick grenades. Charlie picked one up, and examined it. After that, he planned what he would do next.

Charlie walked over to the control room, with the grenade held carefully in his mouth. He set it down on the floor, and knocked loudly on the door. Next, he used his paws to unscrew the cap on the end of the grenade handle, and went around to hide behind the side wall.

"Who's making that racket?" Belladonna asked.

"It's... Charlie?" said Killer, as he stared at the CCTV display, which was pointed at the main control desk outside. However, the CCTV camera did not have a view of the outside of the door, where the deadly explosive was placed.

Inside the control room, Killer went over to the weapons shelf, where he picked up his tommy-gun. Carface went over as well, and grabbed a double-barrelled shotgun.

Killer went over to the door first. He pressed a large button to the side of the door, and it slid open with a whoosh. He was about to step out, when...

"Killer! No! Get back!"

"Wha... What the-?"

But it was too late. Before Killer could back away from the grenade, it detonated violently, and he was thrown away by the powerful blast. The explosion had torn the doorway wide open, leaving the front wall badly damaged.

Carface had been far enough away from the blast to not get hurt, but the same could not be said for Killer. The beige dog had had both of his hind legs taken off below the knee, leaving him with a pair of fleshy, bleeding stumps.

"Jesus..." Carface gasped, as he stood over Killer's injured body. "Shit! I knew something like this was gonna happen. I could feel it in ma' guts."

After that, he turned towards the damaged doorway, and saw that Charlie was now legging it back to the dark room. He had managed to find a special switch which opened both the doors and the chair locks, which meant that the other hero-dogs were now free.

"Get back here, Barkin!" Carface yelled, as he ran out of the control room, with his shotgun in hand. He tried to shoot at Charlie, but by the time he had pulled the trigger, the Shepherd dog had just entered the room, so the shot missed.

"Guys!" said Charlie, once he was inside. "Carface is outside, and he's got a gun. We're going to have to work together if we're getting out of this one alive."

In response to this, the dogs all crowded together, and planned what to do next.

Carface was now standing outside the room, hiding around the door on the side nearer the front of the gondola.

Riley Jr. decided to scout out Carface's position, while the other dogs waited behind. He went up to the left doorway, and sniffed. Next, he crossed to the other door, and sniffed again. By the difference in the perceived strength of Carface's scent, he deduced which door the villainous dog was hiding near.

However, Carface was smarter than he looked. He had heard Riley sniffing, and now he was creeping over to the other side to catch him.

Riley briefly steadied himself, before making a break for it. He tried to dash out through the open door, but Carface was ready for him. As soon as Riley came out, there was a loud bang, and Riley dropped to the floor.

"RILEY!" Sasha screamed, as she saw her brother collapse in a pool of blood. Carface had shot him directly in the face, and now his eyes, nose, and mouth were filled with lead pellets.

Charlie now had to act quickly. He went over to the corner of the room, where he found a rack of gas bottles. He picked one of them up in his arms, and made his way on two legs over to the door on the other side.

"Nobody move!" yelled Carface, as he walked into the room, before raising his gun towards Sasha and Itchy.

Charlie didn't stop moving, though. Just as Carface entered, he left at the other door, and waited until the moment was right for him to continue.

"Where's that Barkin?" Carface barked, at the dogs who he now had in his sights. Sasha said nothing, and Itchy raised his fists, showing that he was prepared to fight.

"Sasha!" the villain continued, as he trained the gun on her. "You're gonna tell me where that bastard is, or you'll end up the same way as your brother."

"You're going to have to try harder than that, fatso," she replied.

"Heh, heh. You're surprisingly defiant in the face of death, aren't you, Sasha? Even though I've got a gun pointed straight in your face, you're still not scared enough to betray that beau of yours. That really says a lot about you, doesn't it?"

At this moment, Charlie was right behind Carface, but his enemy was so focused on Sasha that he failed to notice. Charlie raised the gas bottle like a golf club, and, just before Carface could say anything else, swung it with all his might...

The bottle struck the side of Carface's skull, with such force that it cracked his cheekbone, knocking him out cold. He twirled around for a few seconds, before, like Riley, collapsing to the floor face-first, with blood streaming from the side of his head.

"Come on, guys," said Charlie. "Get out of there!"

Once Itchy and Sasha were out of the room, Sasha knelt down next to Riley, and tried to wake him up.

"Riley? Brother? Are you still alive? Say something, Riley!"

Several seconds passed, before the male Irish Setter finally opened his eyes.

"Sis?"

"Oh, Riley. I thought you were dead."

"I'm not dead YET," he commented, as his sister wiped the flecks of blood from around his mouth. "I don't t'ink I'm going to make it... Hack! Cough! Wheeze!"

"But, brother... if you die, I'll have no family left."

"Never mind about d'at. I could'a gotten that Carface, if I had just been a bit less reckless. If he hadn't had that gun, I would've mauled d'at son-of-a-bitch meself."

After that, he gave his dying breath, and Sasha began to cry as her brother fell limp in her arms.

"You'll have no family left? Well, that would be a lie."

Sasha recognised that voice. She got to her feet, and met Belladonna face-to-face.

"What was that you said?" she asked.

"My dear Fleur. Your parents didn't die when the Death Ray was fired. They escaped from the house minutes before. It's just that I didn't turn on the camera feed until they were out of shot. You know... to play a little mind-game with you."

Sasha was now glaring angrily at the demon-dog.

"You're a manipulative witch. Do you know that?"

"Of course," Belladonna replied. "In fact, I would consider that to be a compliment."

Suddenly, the room was filled with a loud booming sound, and everyone looked towards the front window of the gondola. All that they could see outside was a huge purple sphere, which was moving forward through the air.

"This is it!" said Belladonna, as the sphere began to expand. "The Portal Cannon has been fired!"

After that, she ran into the control room, and the team of hero-dogs followed closely behind her.

Once the shot from the Portal Cannon had reached its maximum size, it appeared to explode, forming a huge dark hole in the sky.

The Bellabee rocked and rolled violently as a strong gravitational force pulled it into the portal. Before they knew it, the dogs and the airship were now all inside a very strange world.

Charlie ran up to the front window, and took a look around. Up above, there was a canopy of thick red clouds, and below, a landscape of dark brown rock formations, of very irregular shapes - shapes which were perhaps even impossible in the real world, like Penrose triangles.

"This," Belladonna began, "is the Border World. Think of it as being like, say, a means of inter-dimensional travel.

"You see, the Belladonna Bumblebee is a very slow aircraft. To travel between countries normally, would take several days. Of course, I can't do with taking forever to cross to the other side of the world... so instead, we're travelling through the Border World."

"But where are we going?" Charlie asked.

"Take a wild guess, Chuckie-boy!"

Charlie waited several seconds, before delivering his response:

"San Francisco."

"Ding-ding-ding! Correctamundo, chuckle-nuts! And can you guess what I'm going to do when we get there?"

"You're going to use the Death Ray on everything?"

"Not only that - I'm going to drop something even nastier on the city..."

"But what is that?"

"... A nuclear bomb! Mwa ha ha... ha ha ha... HA HA HA HA HAA-"

Before Belladonna could finish her abominable cackle, Charlie lunged towards her, and grabbed her by the throat.

"Get your filthy paws off me, you obnoxious scrub! You're going to have to do better than that if you're going to stop me!"

She then threw Charlie to the ground, before stepping over to a small compartment in the side of the control desk. She placed her paw on a green scanner pad, and once it had verified her paw-print, the compartment slid open.

Killer had now regained consciousness, and he saw what Belladonna was doing.

"No..." he panted. "Not the serum... anything but that!"

Belladonna then turned around to face him.

"I'm sorry, Killer," she replied, "but I must. I cannot allow our captives to stay on the ship; they must be dealt with severely!"

Once she had finished her sentence, she reached inside the compartment, and took out from it a large syringe gun. The syringe it was loaded with was filled with a mysterious green liquid. Belladonna then positioned the gun over her left arm...

...and pulled the trigger.

_**Author's note: So, that was the sixth chapter. I'm sorry to end it on a cliffhanger like that, but it's all in the name of suspense. Next week, the final chapter and the epilogue are coming up in one part!**_


	7. Chapter 7 and Epilogue

_Chapter 7: Battle in the Border World_

Once Belladonna had fired the syringe gun, the needle of the syringe lodged itself into her skin, and the green serum began to flow into her bloodstream. After that, she threw the gun to the ground, and, once the syringe was emptied, pulled it out of her arm. She then dropped into a kneeling position, and crushed the syringe under her fist.

The other dogs all watched in horror as Belladonna's muscles started to twitch. Then, they noticed that her body was growing, and they gave a collective gasp.

Within seconds, the demon-dog's arms and tail had grown to an unbelievable size. Her tail, in particular, had become much thicker, changing from a dog's tail into that of a serpent. Before long, her tail was so large that she was able to stand on it, without the use of her legs, which were left flailing in the air.

Then, her wings were the next body part to grow. Just like her tail, they had become large and reptilian, resembling those of a dragon or wyvern.

At this moment, her torso and head had not yet expanded, leaving her with a grotesquely disproportionate appearance. However, that was soon to change...

"Quick!" said Charlie. "She's transforming into her dragon form. We need to get some weapons."

The heroes then ran over to the shelves at the front of the room. When Charlie was half-way there, he saw Killer's tommy-gun lying on the floor next to his immobile body. Without saying a word, he snatched the gun off the floor. Killer tried to protest, but the German Shepherd didn't have time to talk.

On the weapons shelf, Itchy found his wakizashis, which had previously been stolen by Carface. He grabbed the two swords in his paws, and strapped them to his back. Sasha, having no weapons of her own, had chosen a small revolver, and Charlie had retrieved another case of grenades, along with a spare drum of rounds. After that, they all left the room.

The heroes waited outside the control room, bracing themselves for that moment when Belladonna would poke her head out through the destroyed doorway.

When she finally came out, her transformation had been completed. The muscles in her torso - namely, the abdominals and pectorals - had grown to match the proportions of her wings, arms, and tail. The hands on the ends of her arms had become like those of a dragon, except that they were of a shape more similar to that of a human's hands.

Also, her head had grown larger - again, to match the proportions of the rest of her body. Finally, her hind legs had fused into her tail, leaving the underside of her tail as her only foot, and her lavender fur had been completely replaced by a layer of hard scales.

Once the dragonic dog was in range, Charlie opened fire on her. However, the shots from the tommy-gun did little to harm her.

"I am immune to simple bullets!" she bellowed, in a voice which had been deepened by her expanded muscles. She then lunged towards Sasha, and tried to snatch her in her giant, scaly, clawed hand. The Irish Setter tried to shoot her with the revolver, but it was no use - Belladonna grabbed Sasha, and raised her up high.

"Ha, ha, ha!" the demon cackled. "A nice light snack, before I take care of the others!"

However, before she could do anything more, a cold blade suddenly cut through the flesh of her wrist. Itchy had thrown one of his swords like a boomerang, and it had sliced her grabbing hand clean off.

"Gaaaaaah!" Belladonna screamed, as her hand fell to the floor. While Sasha was trying to free herself, however, a cap of flesh grew over the demon-dog's exposed wrist, before forming a new hand in place of the old one.

She then turned towards Itchy, and tried to attack him, but Charlie sprayed some more bullets in her face. Some of the shots had struck her eyes, which temporarily blinded her.

Charlie saw his chance. He ran as fast as he could, to get behind Belladonna, while Itchy kept her occupied. After that, he opened the case of grenades, picked out one of the explosives, and primed it by unscrewing the cap. He then placed it back inside the case, and closed the case back up.

After taking a deep breath, Charlie finally lobbed the case through the air. The box of explosives sailed towards Belladonna, and when it collided with her back, the primed grenade detonated - setting off all the others, and producing a large explosion which ripped her wings from their roots.

"Eeyaaaaargh!" the demon yelled, as she collapsed forward, before placing her hands on the floor to support herself, almost squishing Itchy and Sasha in the process. Meanwhile, Charlie had climbed on top of her tail, and was now making his way up towards the front of her.

Before long, he had reached the back of her head, whilst Belladonna was still struggling to get back up, mostly due to the searing pain which was tearing through her back. Charlie grabbed her ponytail in both of his front paws, before pulling on it with all his might.

"Yee-hah! Giddy up!" he hollered, as the dragonic being attempted to shake him off. But, Charlie's grip was firm, and he managed to hold on despite her erratic struggle.

While the German Shepherd cross was riding the demon like an out-of-control horse, Itchy and Sasha saw their chance. Sasha went to fetch another gas bottle from the dark room, whereas Itchy lined up in front of Belladonna, preparing to deliver his next attack.

However, Belladonna had seen Itchy approaching. Despite the fact that Charlie was still pulling on her hairstyle, she managed to reach down, and grab the wiener-dog in her right hand.

"Itch!" shouted Charlie. "Use your swords!"

But, Itchy had been taken completely by surprise. The swords were still in his paws, but his arms had been trapped underneath Belladonna's scaly fingers. Whilst Charlie had been misdirected by the capturing of his friend, the other giant hand had wrapped itself around him, too.

Next, Belladonna held both of the male canines in front of her, and spoke:

"Ha, ha, ha! At long last, I have the Guardian Angels in my grasp - Choadie Barknuts, and his best friend Short-Legs!"

Charlie was unfazed by this vulgar insult - he simply looked Belladonna straight in the eye, with a cocky look on his face.

"What is it?" Belladonna asked. "Do you secretly enjoy hearing those toxic words?"

"No," he replied. "Perhaps there's someone you're missing?"

"Someone like... like Fle-?"

Before the demon-dragon-dog could finish her sentence, a heavy object suddenly struck her in the chest. The object had been a large canister of compressed gas - Sasha had opened the valve, and, assisted by the force of the escaping gas, thrown the vessel up at her.

The impact had occurred at such a high momentum, that it almost knocked Belladonna over. Fortunately, it had also caused her to let go of the male dogs, dropping them to the floor.

When Charlie hit the ground, he hit it hard, leaving his legs bruised and rippling with pain. Itchy, on the other hand, had landed gracefully on his hind legs, avoiding any injury from the fall.

Next, the Dachshund started to run towards the demon as fast as his feet could carry him. Once he was close enough, however, his mode of locomotion changed - he jumped up high into the air. At first, this seemed to be impossible due to the size of limbs, but his angelic nature was what made it possible.

Once he was at the same height as Belladonna's head, he then dashed downwards through the air, with his two swords held out in front of him. The attack sliced through Belladonna's flesh like a knife through butter.

This was not all, however. For the next strike, Itchy suddenly came from a different direction, almost as if he had teleported. After the second strike, there were another six more, with each dash through the air travelling along a different path. On each of the second, fifth, and eighth hits, Itchy said one of the words which made up the name of the technique:

"_EIGHT... WAY... SLAAAAASH!_"

The eighth and final strike involved both of Itchy's swords piercing Belladonna's chest - the left-hand sword stabbed into her right lung, and the right-hand sword penetrated her heart.

As she began to shrink back into her regular form, the evil being let out a scream more acidic than aqua regia. Within a matter of seconds, she was a dog again, and even though the shrinking of her body had displaced the cold blades from her flesh, the wounds in the skin covering her vital organs were still clearly visible.

"Charlie?"

The Shepherd got to his feet at the sound of Sasha's voice.

"What is it, Sash?"

"Come on. We'd better do something about Belladonna."

The two dogs walked over to her unconscious body. Charlie's joints were still aching from the fall he had taken, but that hadn't been enough to stop him from walking.

Once they were at Belladonna's sides, they picked her up by the arms, and frog-marched her over to the airship's entrance hatch. Itchy pulled the lever to open it up, and his two friends stepped up to the edge, preparing to throw their most evil enemy overboard.

But, just when they were about to release her from their grasps, Belladonna suddenly regained consciousness. She performed a reversal technique on Charlie and Sasha, wrestling them to the floor, and gripped them by their necks.

"You fools! You should have known I was immortal."

Charlie tried to answer to her, but her strangling paw prevented him from speaking. Despite Belladonna's aforementioned immortality, he found it hard to believe that she had only been unconscious for such a short time, considering the notion that a sword through the heart would have killed any mortal dog almost instantly.

"Trying to throw me overboard, hm?" the demon-dog continued. "Not on my watch, bozos. Looks like you two are the ones going overboard this time!"

Charlie finally managed to get some air past the constriction in his windpipe.

"The Earth... will never... be yours!"

"Do not underestimate me, Barkin. I have more power flowing in my veins than you could ever imagine. Speaking of which..."

She then slightly loosened the grip in her left hand, making it easier for Charlie to speak. Her other paw stayed firm, however, leaving Sasha literally struggling to breathe.

"I will never stop in my plans to achieve world domination. The entire Earth's population, united under one single ruler... can you imagine _that_, Chuckie-boy?"

"... I can..."

"Tell me, Barkin! Tell me what you see...!"

"There's nothing but terror..." the distressed dog replied, "... and corruption... and war!"

Belladonna stared at him, with the most evil of glares. Then, she tightened her grip in both paws, in an attempt to strangle her two victims into submission...

Then...

_SHINK!_

The demon's forehead was struck with a shooting pain, which quickly spread all the way through to the back of her head. The cold steel blade had embedded itself in her brain, and sticky, green blood was leaking from the area where it had broken through her skull.

Once again, she let out her agonising scream, as she clutched her head in her hands. She reared up on to her hind legs, and stepped back, until she was dangerously close to the edge.

In spite of the pain in his neck, Charlie got up as well. He stepped towards Belladonna, and once he was close enough to reach for the protruding sword, he grabbed it by the handle. Pulling sharply, he dislodged it, which made the demon-dog lean back, before hitting her with a forceful shoulder-charge.

"Nooooooooooooooo!" she yelled, as she tumbled down into the fog below. She desperately tried to fly back up, before remembering that she no longer had her wings...

The three heroes lay on their fronts, and peered over the edge, as Belladonna appeared to be swallowed up by the dusty, red fog. Her descent was followed up by a faint 'thud', presumably from landing on the mysterious rocks below.

While Itchy was closing the hatch back up, Charlie was looking at the bruises on Sasha's neck, from where Belladonna had been strangling her. Of course, he had such bruises as well, but Sasha's were more prominent - dark blue showed up better on red than on brown.

"My gosh..." he panted. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah..." she replied, breathing heavily. Charlie placed his paws on her shoulders, and the look in his eyes told her that everything was going to be all right.

Killer was now crawling towards the broken doorway. He tried to call out to the heroes, but his voice was very faint.

"What is it, Kill?" said Itchy, stepping up to him.

"Tell the others to help me into the pilot's seat - I'm the only one who knows how to get us out of here, you see."

"Okay, then. Will do."

After another twenty minutes of flying, the Bellabee was finally approaching what appeared to be a small hole in the Border World's atmosphere - a portal point. Killer fired the Portal Cannon, and the portal point opened up into a full-sized portal.

"We're going to have to jettison the nuke here," said Killer. "If we drop it too early, the airship will get caught in the explosion, so I'll have to take care of this."

The four dogs all waited nervously for the right moment, as Killer's paw hovered over the big red button...

"Three... two... one... _now_!"

As the gigantic dirigible started to pass through the portal, the bomb hatch opened up, and the nuke fell down into the fog...

Fortunately, the timing of the drop had been perfect. Just as the Bellabee's tail fins passed the threshold of the portal, an enormous mushroom cloud began to rise up behind it. At the other end, the airship's nose slowly, but surely, emerged into the familiar sky above the city of San Francisco.

_Epilogue_

_Three days later..._

The three heroes, along with Annabelle, were now standing around a plain white hospital bed. Arnold, the Golden Retriever puppy, was resting in the pink Whippet's arms - the day after the incident in Sligo, she had met Sasha's family in the care home Susan had been staying in, and she had retrieved the puppy to give back to Charlie.

Itchy stepped up to the bed, and watched as the dog who occupied it slowly opened his eyes.

"How are you doing, Killer?" Itchy asked.

But, his rival gave no answer; the only sound that came from his mouth was a muffled cough.

"He's not in a good shape at all," said Charlie. "I think it's best not to talk to Killer right now - he needs plenty of rest."

"Says the guy who threw that grenade at him," his best friend replied.

"That's not quite true, Itch. I didn't throw it _at_ him - I just set it in front of the door... and anyway, I was intending to catch Carface in the explosion; not Killer."

"Boys!" snapped Annabelle. "Now is not the time to be arguing."

"Sorry, boss..." sighed the two males.

A few hours after that, the scene had changed to a small cemetery in the outskirts of the city. A pair of human workers were digging up two new graves, readying the ground for the reception of a pair of coffins, which were positioned just behind the men.

From a few rows behind, the hero-dogs were looking at the coffins. One of them was painted black, and the other, brown.

Annabelle then looked at Charlie, and said, "Do you know whose bodies are inside those?"

Charlie nodded, without saying a word.

The black coffin contained the body of Carface, and the brown one held Riley Jr.'s body.

"Oh well, then," Annabelle continued. "Now that Mr. Carruthers is an Angel again, I'll be making sure that his - ahem - 're-rehabilitation' will be even more effective than before. This time, we're hoping that he'll never be bad again - even in the presence of the darkest temptation."

"Well," said Charlie, "if our past experiences with him are anything to go by, he'll be needing something that will turn him off evil for life."

The other dogs nodded back in agreement, and watched as the heaps of dug-up soil grew larger and larger.

_But what had happened to the Belladonna Bumblebee?_

Miles away from the city, there was a dense forest. Tangled in amongst the trees, was a large mass of the airship's hull fabric and wiring, and its gondola was now a crumpled mess. Fortunately, the heroes had managed to bale out by parachute... but Killer had not been so lucky. His injuries had been worsened by the crash, and, had the forest rangers not found him in time, he most surely would have died. The rangers had also retrieved the dead bodies from the wrecked gondola, and helped the hero-dogs get back home.

The task of cleaning up the wreckage of the Bellabee would have been a gargantuan one, but it was a task that the authorities had been willing to take up. As the sun slowly sank below the horizon, a team of construction workers, and their vehicles, were continuing to clear the huge mess, piece by piece, and their work went on well through the night, and into the morning.

=== THE END ===

_**Author's note: There we go, that's the end of the story. It may have been a bit hard to understand for the audience at TASVideos, but I hope you all enjoyed it anyway. I'm currently in the process of writing another story, so, until then, see ya.**_


End file.
